New Era Of UConn Men’s Hoops Begins

STORRS, Conn. (AP) _ Ryan Boatright realized after just a few
minutes that playing for Connecticut under Kevin Ollie was going to
be a bit different than playing for Jim Calhoun.

UConn hit just one of its first nine shots and trailed 10-2 in
its opening exhibition game against American International College
when Ollie called his first timeout. He pulled the team onto the
court, where he and the starters sat on stools going over things.
There was no screaming.

“The mistakes that we made, we definitely would have heard
about it in a way different way than we hear about it with KO,”
Boatright said. “The fans would have got a show if we had played
like that with Calhoun.”

It took the Huskies more than a half to get their first lead for
Ollie. But a 3-pointer by Boatright sparked a 16-0 run in the
second half and the Huskies ended up cruising to a 78-63 win.

Freshman Omar Calhoun led the Huskies with 24 points. Boatright
had 14.

The Hall of Famer, who retired in September, watched from press
row. He slipped into Gampel Pavilion just before the tip, chatted
with referee John Cahill and then took a seat along the baseline.

He spent much of the game resting his elbow on the press table
with his chin in his hand or chatting with Warde Manuel, the
school’s athletic director. But after the game, he went to the
locker room.

“He said a few words, which I’m lying about. You know he can’t
just say a few words,” Ollie joked. “It was good though. Coach
knows when to step off, to step back, let me do what I have to do
and then he has the right words.”

The Huskies never led in the first half and trailed by as many
as 10 points. They had 10 first-half turnovers, but pulled within
29-28 on a 3-pointer by Shabazz Napier just before halftime.

They tied the game on a 3 by Boatright and took their first lead
at 35-33 on two free throws by Tyler Olander a minute later.

“It’s a lot better, because he stayed positive with us, and
just told us play hard and play our game,” he said.

But he also expressed some displeasure at times, especially when
Omar Calhoun decided to pose after drawing a foul on a layup, and
then signaled to the crowd after making a 3-point shot.

“He just said, `We don’t do that here,”’ Calhoun said. “I
just got a little caught up in it.”

Calhoun is expected to be a big contributor on a team that
returns just five players who had significant playing time last
season. Five other underclassmen left the team in the offseason.

The Huskies, who finished last season a disappointing 20-14 a
year after winning the program’s third national title, are picked
to finish ninth in the Big East this season and are academically
ineligible for the Big East and NCAA tournaments.

This is the first season that someone other than Jim Calhoun has
been the head coach since Dom Perno coached his final game in 1986.

Assistant coach George Blaney left Ollie a note that said,
“Take your time and enjoy it.”

He did.

“It was great to come back to your alma mater,” he said. “To
have coach Calhoun sitting down there, my AD sitting down there,
there was a lot of pressure right there. But it worked out good.”

UConn opens the regular season on Nov. 9 in the Armed Forces
Classic at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.